Michael Van Valkenburgh, the Charles Eliot Professor in Practice of Landscape Architecture, has received a Spark Grant from the Harvard Institute for Teaching and Learning (HILT) to suport development of a new master class.

“Projective Views on Urban Metabolism,” the annual Doctor of Design conference, brought together scholars from across the disciplines and around the globe to explore how a new approach to urban metabolism might enhance our understanding of contemporary urban transformations.

This year’s Lincoln/Loeb Fellow Helen Lochhead has been following the progress of the Rebuild by Design teams and finds much to inspire hope for a more climate-resilient urban landscape. Read her reflections in the LOEBlog.

NYC Mayor Bill DiBlasio has turned to a seasoned administrator – and Loeb alum – to head the Department of Environmental Protection in his new administration. Emily Lloyd (LF ’81) was commissioner under Mayor Bloomberg from 2005-08, so she’s no stranger to the workings of city government and the agency; she’s welcomed by agency staff and environmental advocates alike. Read more at the LOEBlog.

A team of GSD students, led by Kristen Hunter (DDes) and advised by Jerold Kayden (professor of urban planning and design), traveled to Japan this month to collect an award, meet with officials and tour the Tohoku region devastated by compound disasters in 2011.

Daniel Ibañez (MDesS ’12, DDes candidate) and Tomas Folch (MLA I ’12), in association with Rodrigo Rubio (Margen-Lab) and Sofia Armanet, have recently received second prize in the international competition to build a telecommunication tower in Santiago de Chile.

The ruins of the 18th century Menokin plantation are poised for rebirth, nurtured by the creative efforts of Jorge Silvetti (professor of architecture) his firm Machado and Silvetti and students of the spring 2013 studio, “Ruins, Memory and the Imagination.” Student projects are currently featured in an exhibit at the Virginia Center for Architecture in Richmond through April 27.

Floating overhead like a giant pair of wings at the 2014 Cevisama exhibition is a ceramic structure created by the GSD Design Robotics Group. It’s a mock-up of a structural ceramic and concrete shell system being developed in collaboration with the Institute for Structural Design at TU Graz, Austria.